09 October 2017 :

St. Charles County Judge Kelly Wayne Parker sentenced Marvin Rice, 50, White, to death. Rice was previously found guilty by a jury Aug. 10 for the Dec. 11, 2011 killing of his ex-girlfriend, Annette M. Durham, 32, on a 1st degree murder charge, and her boyfriend Steven W. Strotkamp, 39, on a 2nd degree murder charge. Parker made the ruling after the jury deadlocked 11-1 on Aug. 12 over whether to sentence Rice to execution or life imprisonment without parole for 1st degree murder. They unanimously chose life imprisonment without parole on the 2nd degree charge. Rice is a former Dent County deputy and state correctional officer. The trial was moved to St. Charles County from Dent County because of the publicity attached to the case, and because of Rice's former job there. The fatal shootings sprang from a custody dispute between Rice and Durham over their son, who was conceived during an affair Rice had while he was a Dent County sheriff's deputy and born while she was serving a prison sentence. Durham, who struggled with drug addiction, was trying to turn her life around.